When Hermione awoke the next morning she was feeling a strange new assortment of feelings—the most prominent one however was the overwhelming pull to seek out Malfoy. In addition, she couldn't help but feel conflicted, guilty and confused all at the same time.
Pursuing a relationship with Malfoy would undoubtedly be a conflict of interest for her. Yet somehow he didn't seem like the same Malfoy that everyone else knew, rather a separate entity that only she had seen the positive side of.
She was particularly confused by the relationship as well. Hermione couldn't ever see a romantic relationship between them, at least not a serious one. But on the other hand what was it that they were already doing? This certainly was not friendship behavior.
"I guess he does have a point that no one would ever really have to know…" Hermione thought to herself as she lay awake in bed. Whenever this thought crossed Hermione's mind she would feel her usual bout of guilt begin to surface again thinking of Harry and Ron and the countless hours she sat with them professing their hatred towards their fellow classmate.
These same thoughts circled endlessly in her mind and it was the same problem she always seemed to have: a battle between the rational side of her and the impulsive one. The rational side of her brain told her to stay away, that he was bad news, that no good could come out of continuing this obscure new relationship, and that she was stabbing her two best friends in the back.
The impulsive side of her was whispering other things; things that made Hermione blush just thinking about them let alone acting on them. She was now seriously questioning her decision to form her own opinion of him because it felt as though this was skewing the results of her social experiment. Did she really have a clearer picture of who he was, or was she just choosing to ignore all the bad things to justify the feelings she was developing for him?
Another image of Malfoy's piercing gaze flashed into Hermione's brain and she suddenly lost her train of thought. The urge to seek him out was growing stronger by the second. Hermione decided that she would perform one final experiment in which she would let her heart make the decision for her so that she could stop overanalyzing the situation and let it play out.
She now hastened out of bed and began readying herself for the day. Most of the girls in the dormitory were still asleep as to take advantage of being able to sleep in on the weekend but Hermione couldn't wait any longer. She needed answers and she needed them as soon as possible. After dressing in a hurry and descending the staircase of the girl's dormitory, Hermione made her way across the Gryffindor common room and had almost reached the fat lady when…
"Good morning Hermione! Are you going down to breakfast?"
"Oh, good morning Ginny." Hermione answered, slightly startled by the interruption, "Actually, I was about to…."
"I'll join you, I'm absolutely starved and no one else is awake yet." Ginny interrupted and climbed out the portrait hole.
"Splendid." Hermione said under her breath, following after her.
When they arrived at the Great Hall that morning there were very few students feasting on the morning meal. Nonetheless, Hermione scanned the long tables crowding the room in the hopes of seeing Malfoy but he too was not awake yet.
Over breakfast, Ginny babbled about her classes and a variety of other things. Hermione politely nodded along but was only half listening to her as she was busy trying not to focus on the images of Malfoy's perfectly chiseled chin that kept popping up in her mind. Her newfound attraction toward him seemed to appear overnight and Hermione couldn't decide if it was because she knew it was wrong to be involved with him or because she had told him it couldn't continue between them only the day before. Perhaps he had been this attractive all along and she was blinded by of all the hostile opinions she had previously held. In any instance, Hermione couldn't tear her thoughts away long enough to come down to earth and visit with Ginny.
After what felt like an eternity, one of Ginny's fellow third years joined them at the table and Hermione saw her window of opportunity open at last.
"Well, I had best be off Ginny, I'll see you later then." Hermione said as she started to slide off the wooden bench.
"Where are you running to this early in the morning? You can't possibly mean to tell me you're barricading yourself in the library this early on a Sunday." Ginny said staring up at her over the top of her glass of orange juice.
"What can I say?" Hermione shrugged, "I've just got places to be is all."
"You must have a hot date to get to," Ginny smiled, "see you later then." She said turning to face her friend and discuss their latest divination assignment.
Hermione knew she was joking but felt her face instantly flush with embarrassment. She hoped that Ginny didn't notice this and wasn't becoming suspicious of anything.
As she strolled away from the Great Hall it occurred to her that she hadn't the slightest idea of where to look for Malfoy. She decided to begin her search in his study spot on the sixth floor but didn't find him there. She also checked the library but it wasn't until after she had ruled out this location that she recalled him saying he disliked the library and only went there when it was absolutely essential. Hermione checked the common areas of the castle as well and when there was no sign of him anywhere, she decided she had no other choice but to head down to the Slytherin house located in the dungeon.
When Hermione had traveled through the dark, dank dungeon and reached the Slytherin common room she felt slightly stupid at her desperation. She had no way of accessing the Slytherin house in the first place so what did she expect to do when she got there?
Lucky for her an answer to her question appeared before her very eyes.
"Excuse me!" Hermione said, calling out to a young first year boy who had just exited the common room.
"Y-yes?" The boy stammered looking very nervous.
"I was wondering if you could do me a small favor, I'd be most grateful if you did." Hermione said kindly, sensing that the boy was rather shy.
"Sure, what is it?" The boy answered, sounding more confident now.
"Brilliant!" Hermione exclaimed as she bent down to talk to him face to face, "Right then, can you go back into the Slytherin common room and tell Draco Malfoy that Hermione Granger needs to speak with him?"
The color from the boy's face drained almost instantly. "D-Draco M-Malfoy?" He stammered.
"Correct." Hermione replied.
He gulped audibly, "He's almost always surrounded by those big scary fourth years…."
Hermione blinked, realizing that Crabbe and Goyle were probably not the most welcoming to the younger students, "Well, I'm sure that if you tell him really nicely that Hermione is looking for him, no one will give you any trouble."
"And why exactly would he need to see you, Mudblood?"
Hermione whirled around to see Vincent Crabbe and Gregory Goyle standing behind her looking rather threatening. The first year boy took one look at them and quickly scurried out of sight. "I should think that's not really any of your business. "She retorted hotly.
"Malfoy's business is our business." Growled Crabbe with his arms folded across his chest. "How's about you tell us what you need to speak to him for and we'll let you know if it's something he needs to hear?"
Hermione gave a sarcastic laugh, "I don't have to tell you two baboons anything!"
This time Goyle spoke, "Filthy Mudblood, you've got a lot of nerve talking back to us!"
Hermione burned with rage and instinctively withdrew her wand from her pocket, "Speak to me like that again and I'll make sure the two of you don't leave the hospital wing for a month." She warned raising her wand, ready to fire curses at them at any second.
Crabbe and Goyle also took out their wands and got into position. "You wouldn't dare." Said Goyle.
"Yeah," added Crabbe, "You'd be too afraid of getting expelled."
"Do I detect a problem here boys?" Another voice questioned from behind Crabbe and Goyle's oversized frames.
In the blink of an eye both cronies lowered their wands and spun around to see Malfoy himself standing behind them.
"Draco!" Goyle spluttered, "We were just having a little conversation with Granger here."
"Said she needed to talk to you." Crabbe added.
Malfoy snarled in aggravation, "And?! You thought I was incapable of handling it on my own?"
"No Draco! We only thought we were doing you a favor—"Goyle backpedaled.
"—We didn't want this wretched Mudblood wasting your time."
"I don't remember asking the pair of you to be the judges now did I? I can take care of my own affairs perfectly fine thanks." Malfoy spat, shooting each of them a menacing stare. Crabbe and Goyle both began stammering around for further explanation but Malfoy rounded on them the moment they opened their mouths, "Get out of my sight you fools, surely you have better things to do than eavesdrop on my personal business!"
And with that the pair of them stepped past Hermione and into the Slytherin common room. Hermione lowered her wand and jammed it back into her pocket before walking over to the spot where Malfoy stood planted in place. "Come with me." She commanded and tugged him by his sleeve in the opposite direction of Slytherin house.
"Mind telling me what this all about?" Malfoy inquired, hurrying to keep up with her.
"Not here." Hermione responded.
When they had made their way out of the dungeons, Hermione climbed the grand staircase up to the second floor of the castle and darted into the nearest classroom. The room was completely deserted being that it was Sunday and once they were both safely inside from the prying eyes of others, Hermione took out her wand once more. "Colloportus!" She said and the door lock clicked shut in obedience.
"Sorry about those two blokes by the way, they like to think their being helpful by shoving their noses where they don't belong." Malfoy snorted.
But Hermione couldn't wait any longer; she had already pushed the unpleasant encounter with Crabbe and Goyle from her mind and cared little about discussing it further. She stepped over to him and lifted his school bag off his shoulder, letting it fall to the floor with a loud thud.
Malfoy was looking at her with a puzzled expression on his face, "And what are we doing here exactly?"
"An experiment." Hermione responded, "Now stop talking." She instructed as she grabbed a fistful of his sweater and reached up on tip-toe to kiss him passionately.
She was definitely addicted. The moment their lips met, Hermione's pulse quickened with excitement. She stretched up and ran her fingers through his feathery blonde hair as he pulled her tightly into his embrace.
"That'll do…"Hermione whispered breathlessly when they finally parted. The rational side of her brain was screaming at her but for the first time she didn't care. There was something about him that she couldn't quite put her finger on. Nothing that she had yet experienced in her life came remotely close to the exhilarating thrill she experienced while in the presence of Draco Malfoy. Hermione knew now that she didn't have it in her to stay away, not when his kiss caused her to see stars and send chills through her entire body. "No one can ever know." Hermione said warningly.
"Cross my heart." Malfoy returned, drawing an invisible "x" over his chest before grabbing her waist and pulling her into another electrifying kiss.